A system architecture describes the mode of operation of a processor and mechanisms provided to support operating systems and including system-oriented registers and data structures and system-oriented instructions. The system architecture also provides the mechanisms necessary for switching between real-address and protected modes.
Introduction of a single-instruction, multiple-data (SIMD) technology to a system architecture provides for parallel computations on packed integer data contained in 64-bit registers. SIMD provides enhanced performance to a processor in, for example, advanced media, image processing and data compression applications.